Portrait Statues of Women on the Island of Delos

Abstract

The island of Delos offers a rich array of epigraphic, archaeological, and sculptural evidence for portrait statues of women, particularly in the late Hellenistic/late Republican period. This chapter focuses on the period after 167/6bce, when the island was under Athenian control and as a free port attracted Italian businessmen and traders. The author first looks at the statue formats or body types that were commonly used for images of women in both freestanding statues and on funerary reliefs. Then, she considers the few preserved marble female portrait heads from Delos, with a particular focus on the unusual head from the House of the Diadoumenos. She reviews the evidence for the date of this portrait, explores what kind of statue this inset portrait head may once have belonged to, and suggests what the portrait style and the find context might tell us about the identity of the portrait subject. Keywords:Delos; Diadoumenos; female portrait statues; freestanding statues; funerary reliefs; inscribed portrait statue bases; marble female portrait heads